Fighter
by guerilla sam
Summary: Taraak isn't the friendly wasteland it is in the anime, there's a war going on between the males, and during the wars first space battle the female pirates invade, due to a 'scorched earth' policy implemented by the men, they are flung across the galaxy with the same three men, but they are professional, more serious and not very friendly. Basically they aren't push overs.


**So I started writing this back in September, and it is the longest chapter I have ever wrote, it was basically seeing all these stories where a male OC comes in and is a bit of badass, so I thought what if Hibiki was a badass and what if Taraak wasn't the friendly dust ball it was in the show.**

* * *

Taraak a barren planet it is mostly a desert with fresh water sources deep underground, one would wonder why someone would even attempt to settle here well there's a history to this. Taraak is populated by only men who reproduce in advanced cloning facilities known as factories, this is due to the fact the colonization ship that came here split in two. Men going to this planet while the woman went to a planet that is comparatively pristine having to be mostly grasslands and water this planet is called Mejeere which is not relevant to this story yet. The history of Taraak is bloody, had this been another universe the men would have been unified under a large but pretentious empire. Not here. During the second generation a large group of third class citizens were angry at the fledgling empire and started an uprising. This failed having been outgunned and outmatched they were massacred and the survivors retreated into the desert and eventually started their own government known as the Taraak Coalition.

The Coalition valued independent recognition as opposed to the Empire which grouped people together and had them work 'for the glory of the empire'. The Coalition also had good industrial power and were able to make cloning facilities of their own due to some of the exiles having either constructed or worked at similar facilities. They even started their own military knowing they are outnumbered they concentrated on superior weaponry and training. They had reliable weapons and made mechs to counter the van-types used by the empire known as the Strauss version Raider-type armor. It was bipedal walker with two large rapid fire gauss cannons with an under slung rocket launcher. Unlike the humanoid mechs of the empire it could transform into a fighter, this made hit and run tactics on targets easy.

After a few years a Coalition and Imperial patrol met in the badlands both having constructed outposts on the edge of the region a gun fight broke out with both sides retreating to their outpost and radioing in their findings. This was the beginning of war. Coalition and Imperial forces rushed to the badlands to fight a war they have been expecting since the uprising.

The battle began and dragged on for weeks with the Coalition slowly gaining the upper hand and pushing back the Imperials who eventually retreated. Several other battles took place in other similar desolate environments, there where nothing valuable about these areas each side just wanted the other dead. The war carried on with its attrition like status for decades until the battle of the Gorge where a particularly rich ore deposit was found both sides were sent particularly large forces combining to around to two million combatants. But when the battle started, the sounds of fighting woke up something. Large insect like indigenous creatures that seemed to be hibernating deep underground emerged and ravaged the humans already fighting on the surface. Only five men are confirmed to have made it out alive and all them had grievous wounds on them two more died later from them, another committed suicide because of the horrors he witnessed. The insects themselves have been dubbed reapers by the humans due to the intense carnage they wrought at the Gorge. Both sides agreed to a two week cease fire to recover and mourn their losses.

The next conflict was a space race the Empire made their own fleet and planned to bomb Coalition positions form orbit. So a Coalition infiltration team stole the plans right out of the capital and constructed their own fleet when they met the in space Empire had slight advantage in numbers, having modified the colonization vessel they came on as their flagship. The fleets destroyed each other except for the Imperial flagship known as the Ikazuichi. Coalition however launched boarding craft into the old section of the ship and are currently fighting the crew for control. This brings us to the present…

"Dammit!" said a young man as a bullet flew over his head and hit one of his comrades who was knocked down but the body armor he wore protected him and soon got back up. And moved to cover.

"Hibiki!" Yelled the squad leader who was a grizzled middle aged man by the name of Graves, the young man turned towards him. "we need to flank them! Get into the vents and hit them from behind!"

"Why me?" asked Hibiki while a hail of bullets flew over his head.

"Because you're the short one now move!" yelled the Graves. Hibiki would have punched anyone for calling him short but now wasn't the time. He popped up and shot of two rounds from his heavy caliber assault rifle hitting and killing one of the imperial soldiers before crawling to a vent two of his comrades were opening. Unlike the Coalition the Empire didn't issue body armor which made their soldiers that much easier to kill.

Hibiki crawled into the vent and made his way through the tightly compacted space. Even with his admittedly short stature the space was still difficult to maneuver through, not to mention his bulky assault rifle making it even more difficult. Eventually he found the other side and took aim the vent was half way up the wall so it made easy to get targets. He let loose a barrage of bullets destroying the grate and anything on the other side. Hibiki then proceeded to exit as his squad came up to the former enemy position.

"Good job," said Graves walking up "Alright half the squad stays here to secure the area the rest of you push forward and find the rest of the guys who made it here." Before anyone could act a spherical object landed in the middle of the group.

"Grenade!" yelled one of the Coalition soldiers, and before Hibiki could act Graves grabbed the collar of his jacket and threw him down the hall as the grenade went off. Hibiki rolled a bit before getting into a crouched position and sliding to a stop he then noticed a group of imperials coming from where the grenade was thrown. Hibiki aimed his rifle he managed to hold onto before firing short controlled burst making quick work of the approaching group who was not expecting a survivor. He then ran up to where his group was, their bodies were scattered and still, they were dead. Despite the body armor they were issued, grenades were still lethal.

"Hibiki…" rasped out a voice, he turned to find Graves propped up against the wall blood stains showing where the shrapnel hit him.

"Graves!" exclaimed Hibiki kneeling down next to him "Get up we need to get you to a medic!"

"No…no boy…I'm done for" Graves said in a surprisingly calm tone, Hibiki didn't want to hear this, Hibiki has been in Graves's unit ever since he finished combat training and was only reassigned prior to the battle of the Gorge but reunited afterwards, he has been the closest thing to a father figure Hibiki has ever had. Aside from his grandpa but that's well…his grandpa. "Listen, you need to fight on and push forward, find the others and take this ship!" Graves then started coughing up blood.

"But…" protested Hibiki

"Dammit boy! This is my final order now follow it!" Hibiki finally complied and left as Graves drew his last breath. He ran forward he could hear the sound of gunfire echoing throughout the ship growing louder as Hibiki continued onward shooting any stray imperial he saw.

Then the ship rocked with an explosion. Hibiki looked out to see unknown ships flying outside trailing blue streaks of light. "ah, what the hell are we dealing with now damn it!?" a message from the PA system was heard

"Attention all hands female pirates who have been raiding our asteroid mining supply lines are currently attacking the ship all those so the chairman has decided to separate the ships, your Sacrifice will be honored." With that more rumbling was heard and Hibiki could see the ship separating from the viewport. This was bad.

The Empire has a amputation doctrine, as in if they can't have it than no one can. So this they are probably going to blow up the old section of the ship which has most if not all of the Coalition survivors on it.

"To all Coalition forces hearing this transmission. This is Captain Stryker, regroup at the hanger for evac, the as we all know Empire is going to probably blow up their own ship to get rid of us and I don't feel like dying today." Hibiki moved his hand from his side which he had been unconsciously holding and saw red

"Dammit, the grenade must have clipped me" he Thought, considering his situation "I deal with it later I'm dead anyways if the imperials scuttle the ship" he then began moving according to the order hoping to meet up with his comrades and get home.

'This ending up just like the Gorge' he thought with a scowl as moved deeper into the ship until he went through a room with a massive crystal in the middle before an explosion knocked him out.

* * *

**Female Pirates**

A group in oddly designed environment suits were cautiously moving their way through the ships halls. They had weapons that seemed to be energy based. These were female pirates they were based out of an asteroid and have been doing raids on imperial supply lines totally unaware of the events unfolding on Taraak or even of the Coalitions existence.

"This is strange Meia" said one of group members in feminine voice "It's not that I want get into a fight or anything but how come we haven't seen any men."

"Jura's right" said another "in the other ships they had at least a guard at the airlock, not that it didn't do much to stop us but still."

"It is strange, but this the destroyed ships outside could have something to do with this." Said the apparent leader Identified as Meia.

"What you mean the male fleet destroyed itself before we got here?" said the one known as Jura. "That's crazy even though they are primitive I don't think the men would have that faulty of a targeting system." Before any more conversation could be had on this topic sudden gunfire erupted behind a closed door they were passing followed by yelling and an explosion then silence. The women slowly approached the door weapons at the ready.

"Open it" said Meia, they did and none of them were prepared what they saw on the other side, it was a large room probably for massive storage considering this is an old colony ship, the off thing about this one though was the dozens of bodies scattered all over the place, some wore green jackets and had some sort of protective body armor while others had a more prestigious uniform and took up the majority of corpses in the room. Most of them where dismembered in some way others had weapons with large bayonets sticking out of them. This caused some of the pirates to cringe and turn away.

Being pirates they were use to dead bodies, but using lasers took the blood and gore out of it and made fighting for the lack of a better term 'cleaner'. They quickly closed and regained their wits. "What was that!?" asked one of the pirates" I know men used primitive weaponry but that was almost barbaric in there!"

"You use primitives weapons too Barnette" said Jura.

"Nothing that could cause that!" she yelled "What the hell is going on in this ship? This was supposed to be a simple crash and grab!"

"We'll figure that out later." said Meia "Remember Dita is alone in here I don't want her facing the opposition alone." The pirates nodded and moved forward finding a stray corpse here and there every so often.

* * *

**Hibiki**

Hibiki awoke from unconscious to find something dangling in front of his face before his curiosity got the better of him he noticed it was attached to something and looked farther up to find a mask staring down at him. He pushed the thing of him and jumped back and surprise trying to find his rifle which he noticed down below him he was about to leap down to it but the thing spoke.

"Hey wait!" said a high pitched somewhat childish voice. Hibiki paused surprised that it actually spoke. The thing shuffled a little bit before removing it's torso revealing there to a red headed person in there. This person was different from the other people Hibiki knew for one it was curvier then a man, slimmer and it also had two lumps on its chest. "Wow a real live alien."

'Is this a woman …alien?' he wondered. The female made an gesture with her hand which Hibiki imitated the gesture, which made her ecstatic.

"Yay! I made first contact" she cheered, before digging in her bag for something

'Okay…' thought Hibiki 'Women are suppose to be vile viscous monster rivaling that of a reaper and rip the hearts out of defenseless men if imperial propaganda is to be believed…and it shouldn't…but just to be on the safe side.' Hibiki jumped down to where his rifle was and aimed back at the girl who just noticed he jumped, and pulled the trigger.

*Click**Click*

His magazine was empty. He then remembered the commanders message.

"Dammit I don't have time for this!" he yelled and turned and ran towards the exit while reloading.

"Hey wait come back!" said the girl "I just want to ask you a few questions and take some pictures"

"Woman are not only the strangest thing I've seen they don't make any sense at all!" yelled Hibiki to no one in particular the chase went on for a little while before Hibiki began to get annoyed "Dammit woman! Quit following me!"

"I just want to talk!" she replied

"Like I'm going to buy that!" yelled Hibiki and turned his assault rifle on her and fired a few rounds causing her to duck down and crouch while covering her head… in the middle of the hallway "geez that girl is in a battle but has no skill for it." He muttered he was about to finish her when he saw something out of the corner of his eye and jumped back just in time to avoid several red streaks fly by and hit the spot he was just standing and turned to see several dressed similar to what the red head was wearing earlier but with a variety of different mask styles he turned and fired his gun at them single handedly so not enough to hit one but enough to make them scatter so he could escape. He got into a hall way and took the breather before his wound started acting up forcing him to sit. Hibiki cursed and finally decided to treat his wound he removed his armor and jacket and took out knife and then pushed it into his wound grunting from the pain as he did so. After some digging he was able to scrape out the bit of shrapnel, he then bandaged it to the best of his ability which wasn't really adequate by any means but it would hold, for now.

* * *

**Pirates**

"Dita!" said Meia in a scolding tone grabbing the red headed girl in question who was about to chase after clearly the hostile male despite the recent display. "you should know better than to go off on your own."

"I'm sorry Meia." She said apologetically "but I just got so excited that I saw an alien."

"You do realize he was trying to kill you right?" said Barnett irritated with the girl.

"That was just a misunderstanding, I'm sure he didn't mean any harm" she replied naively

"We'll settle this later." said Meia "right now we should-"

"Meia can you hear me!?" came the panicked voice of their commander.

"I'm here BC what's wrong?" asked Meia, inwardly nervous that her commander was panicked

"The men that split off when we arrived just shot two torpedoes at the section you're in! get to your dreads now! We're coming in to extract the others so hurry!" the entire team heard this and scrambled back to where they landed. But it was too late the missile hit and everything went to white

* * *

**Hibiki**

Hibiki walked into the hanger like with rest of the combat zones there was a mix of bodies more imperials than coalition. This is disturbing in several ways not only did this mean that he was probably the only coalition soldier left on the ship and now has no means of escape, but the way the bodies were killed they were slashed and stabbed there was no bullet wounds but plenty of spent casings. The bodies had deep slashes on them a few dismembered but that was a common sight in the war on Taraak, the wounds however showed signs of infection that shouldn't have happened that quickly, normally. Hibiki had an idea of what this meant, he just hoped he was wrong.

*SCREEEEEEEEECH*

He wasn't wrong, but before the origin of the sound revealed itself ship rocked violently and everything went to white.

He was in a dream that he was falling among a endless sea of blue along with three other people he couldn't make out. And they just continued to fall, eventually the dream changed he was in a desert with a rifle. Several silhouetted figures popped out of the sand and pointed weapons at him. Hibiki aimed and fired his gun tearing apart the silhouettes but more kept appearing. Eventually it changed again Hibiki was panting among a pile of silhouette corpses. Three giant crystals popped out of the sand each had a different figure.

_"Why do you fight?" _asked a voice that seemed to come from everywhere at once, Hibiki didn't answer and instead kept switching the aim of his rifle between the crystals. _"is this how you will live your life?"_

"Seems to be working so far…" muttered Hibiki jokingly. The vision faded to black.

When he woke up again everything was dark luckily Coalition standard issue assault rifles had flashlights installed. Hibiki used the flash light to look around the room was intact minus the lights being off. Then he remembered the sound he heard earlier and cautiously looked around, before quickly exiting the room he didn't know where he was going but it was probably safer than in there. The fact that he was still alive probably meant that the thing was currently unconscious and therefore still in the hangar.

Hibiki knows what that thing is, he knows if it gets the drop on him he'll be dead before he realizes it.

* * *

**Female Pirates**

Meia woke up awhile ago in her dread, having just reached the cockpit when the missile hit. the power looks to have been knocked out too. This weird crystal was all over the place too even covering their dreads. Jura and Barnette have also woken up that just leaves Dita on unconscious, which said redhead seemed to be having a blissful dream if her expression was anything to go by. A door opened revealing their elderly captain and commander along with a guard detail. "Captain, what are you doing here?" asked Meia surprised at her arrival.

"I came to inspect our new ship." Said the captain also known as Magno Vivian "Apparently this strange crystal has somehow fused our ships when we docked to retrieve the engineering team."

"What is this crystal anyways." Asked Jura it's all over our Dreads.

"This seems to be a result of the Paksis Pragma." Said parfait "It may have been a defense mechanism that the Paksis sent us through a worm hole, in the form of self preservation."

Before anyone could say anything else a loud crushing noise was heard as a bunch of debris fell down from a passageway. Everyone turned and saw a figure of short stature jump down and look up surprised at the gathered females. "Dammit!" he yelled before aiming his gun and fired causing the women to scatter it was inaccurate because he was shooting on the go while moving to cover. He just managed to duck behind some crates. Just in time to avoid laser fire he slid out and fired a burst at the group before running again to a pile debris to take cover.

'This isn't good!' thought Hibiki as he leaned against the debris pile. 'of all the things I could have run into, it was these so called pirates! And to make matters worse my wound is bleeding through the bandages.' Hibiki got up as he clenched his wound he didn't have the strength any more to use his rifle and let drop. It clattered as it bounced off the ground.

He switched a 12 inch long blade he keeps strapped to his thigh, and swings around the corner almost catching a female off guard but she acted fast enough to dodged she had short light blue hair and appeared unarmed. However she pointed a ring at him. Hibiki guessing it was a weapon, moved out of the way in time to dodge a red beam. Before he leaped at her preparing to strike however he was intercepted by another female with long blonde hair and a revealing dress she had a rapier with her which she didn't really use all that well and was able to knock her off balance and was about to finish her off when Hibiki noticed a third attacker out of the corner of his eye a few loud bangs were heard as he jumped and several bullets hit where he was standing.

'At least some of them use normal weapons.' Hibiki thought as he threw his blade at her and switched to his sidearm which was a basic semi-automatic pistol he aimed with his right hand while his left was clutching his wound as the blood was now making a notable red blotch in his armored vest. They were at a standstill the three were watching him carefully ready to strike the moment he showed an opening, he however was keeping them at bay by alternating hs gun between the three keeping focus on the one with a gun of her own.

It looked like the stalemate would last awhile, but Hibiki's wounds caught up with him and his vision began fading in and out. He dropped his gun and fell to his knees supporting himself with his hands, he was coughing violently and eventually blood came out. Hibiki wasn't able to stay conscious and his vision faded to black.

The women watched in surprise at what happened, cautiously move towards the collapsed recently hostile male. Jura used the back of her sword to move him over on to his back when they finally got a good look at him, he was a short person with his face covered in goggles and a clothe wrapped around the bottom half. A notable fact was profusely bleeding wound at his side.

"Hey, we need a Paiway over here!" Yelled Meia thinking fast.

"Meia what are you doing? he's a man we don't need to help him!" protested Barnette.

"He may be the on one to tell us what happened on this ship!" replied Meia as a twelve year old girl came up dressed in maids outfit. 'What is going on here? Not only the events but the skill he displayed, on all our other raids they barely put up a fight but he was able to hold off three of us wounded like that! Just what is going on here?'

* * *

**Later**

Hibiki woke up with a groan, the first thing he noticed he was in a cell that was apparently being used as makeshift storage closet. And the next thing he noticed was…

"Hello there mister coalition soldier." Said a males voice in an even tone, he turned and saw a man with long hair dressed in a imperial medical uniform. Hibiki instinctively upholstered a pistol and aimed at the man…or he would if he had a weapon to begin with, he also noted he was missing his armor and jacket and was now in a loose white tank top with bloodstain where his wound was along with his pants. He was also handcuffed. "Interesting how your first reaction is to shoot me." Said the man studying him. "Tell me what is your name."

"Hibiki." The young Coalition soldier replied cautiously. "Where am I?"

"We're in a holding cell." Replied a new voice, Hibiki turned to find a second Imperial in a officers cadet uniform sitting against the wall he had neck length blonde hair. "I'm Bart by the way and he's Duelo." He gestured to himself and the other imperial. "And listen I know we're sworn enemies but for the time being I think we should get along."

"Why?" asked Hibiki, eyes narrowing.

"Because there's a bunch of female pirates outside this holding block that I'm pretty sure has us outnumbered, so us all being men I think we should work together." Replied the one known as Bart.

Hibiki thought about it, the imperials are a known enemy, so are the women at this point, when the Imperials want to make a truce they honor it, the women have him in a cage. Hibiki considered his options and nodded at Bart.

"Great, now do you know anything about that giant flash or why the ship is covered in a crystal?" asked Bart, Hibiki shook his head

"No, I was in the hangar when it happened and-" Hibiki, stopped suddenly his eyes widened as remembered "Shit! That's right."

"What?" asked Bart curious, Duelo also had a look of interest.

"There's a reaper on this ship!" the two other men faces expressed looks of shock and a hint of fear.

"What!? A reaper!?" shouted Bart in a panicked expression "Are you sure!? I mean why would a reaper be on this ship!?" Duelo was however pondering something.

"Yes I'm sure, I saw the wounds! I heard that screech! Trust me I know it's a reaper!" Shouted Hibiki.

"You were at the Gorge weren't you?" said Duelo maintaining a calm voice, Hibiki and Bart both looked at him in shock. Hibiki at being found out, Bart is that he's speaking to one of two survivors of that battle, it does not matter which side of the war you were on if you made it out of there alive you have the utmost respect from any men who knows this.

"How did you know?" asked Hibiki.

"I figured that either a scientist studying the reapers would know what it's like" Said Duelo "or a soldier who made it out, and you don't seem to be a scientist."

"Yes I was at the Gorge." Said Hibiki "Better yet I know how to kill that thing. If it isn't dead already."

"My aren't you having quite the spirited discussion." Said a new voice in a joking tone, this one belonged to a female, the men turned an found a tall woman with tanned skin an long silver hair standing in outside the cell with a group of armed females, however they merely brushed them off and went back to the matter at hand.

"Man I hope that thing is dead because if it isn't we are all screwed!" Said Bart, the women looked on in confusion and irritation, both at what they were discussing and the fact they were ignored.

"Hey don't ignore the commander like that!" shouted a female guard.

"Yeah , shouted another in case you've forgotten you are our prisoners."

"It's fine girls." Said the commander with a small smirk "But I wonder, what this topic that seems so important to you?"

"Nothing important" replied Hibiki, with a slight hostile tone to his voice.

"Oh really it didn't seem all that unimportant form the noise you were making." Said the commander, the three remained silent. "Not so talkative now are you? No matter I'm sure we'll get some answer later on, you three are to come with us."

* * *

**Female pirate command group**

"The men seem to use two types of ballistic weaponry" said Barnette being the weapons specialist of the crew "One seems to be relatively simple in design having being a basically a rectangular box with a barrel sticking out of it. It's chambered for the 7.62x39mm, these were mostly seen in the hands of the bodies wearing green uniforms, the other seems to be a light caliber 5mm machinegun fed from a helical magazine mounted under the barrel this was in the hands of the other faction."

"The two groups of men seemed to have fought each other for some unspecified reason, whether this was an act of rebellion or a filed piracy act is unclear." Said Meia "We have rounded up three prisoners one of them being the wounded male that fought us earlier. The other two were found wandering the ship. BC is bringing them up now."

"Good." Said the Captain "Maybe then we can get some answers on why there is so much bloodshed prior to our arrival." As she finished the three men were led into the room put onto the couch the opposite of the captain. "When I heard we had prisoners, I wasn't expecting a bunch of kids, although I'm sure looks can be deceiving, especially you little one." She directed her gaze towards Hibiki, the other males looked at him questionably.

"I got into a small fight with several people in this room and fell unconscious due to a shrapnel wound from earlier." Hibiki explained to the guys.

"Yes, but in relation to fighting, could you tell us why most of your comrades seem to be dead before we got here?" asked the captain. The three men exchanged glances, seemingly communicating without words. Before Hibiki finally shrugged.

"Because we're in a war." He said

"Is that so?" asked the captain with some interest.

"Yes it's a war spanning most of Taraaks history." explained Duelo "It's between the Empire and Coalition what you saw when you boarded our ship, was the remains of our first space battle. Hibiki here is part of the coalition while the rest of us belong to the empire."

"Well now that is fascinating I thought you men would all have gotten along together but I guess not" said the captain with a shrug "Now we need to figure out what to do with you three."

"I think we should get rid of them." said Meia "Things are unstable enough as it is and we don't' need them making it worse."

"Let's not be hasty." Said the captain "First we need to figure exactly how to cook them up and finish them."

'I guess there is some truth to imperial propaganda.' thought Hibiki as the men watched her with unmoved expressions.

"Either you are brave or foolish" said the captain "I was sure that would have scared you little."

"Lady, there is something on this ship I fear a lot more than whatever you could do to me." Said Hibiki with a confident smirk. "Either it's dead or-" before Hibiki could finish another crew member ran into the room.

"Captain we have a problem!" yelled the crew member who was now out of breath.

"What's wrong?" asked the captain.

"A group we sent to the underpowered part of the males ship has just came back, they're all wounded and one lost consciousness whike another is missing!" the girl was panicking. Hibiki sighed and put a hand over his face. While the other two's eyes widened

"Do we know what caused it?" asked Meia taking note of the men's reaction "is there another male on the ship?"

"When we asked the group they said they were attacked by monster." She replied shaking now "Parfet is booting up the security cameras in that section of the ship." The girl took out a device and handed it to BC. Eventually the thing activated and show a holographic display of the supposed area. But it was black signifying the lights were out. But audio wasn't.

*SCREEEEEEEEEECH*

It was a high pitched screech followed by some clicking.

"Crap." said Hibiki with another sigh. "That thing is still alive."

"Is there something you'd like to share with us little one?" asked the Captain, because of his mood.

"Not really." Replied Hibiki casually "Seeing as how you're probably going to kill us anyways." Meia got sick of his mood and pointed a laser ring at him, Hibiki however didn't show fear and instead looked up at her with annoyance and contempt.

"Stop fooling around and tell us what that thing is!" she said a bit angry. Hibiki wasn't fazed however.

"You kill me and, that thing kills everyone." Said Hibiki calmly.

"Easy there Meia." said the captain, before turning to Hibiki as Meia lowered her laser ring "What do you mean?"

"Since you asked so nciely." Said Hibiki sarcastically earning the ire of most of the females present. "That thing is universally known on Taraak as a reaper. They are insect like alien life form that was sleeping under the surface of Taraak. They also blades for forearms that can cut through a mech in a single strike, even if you survive that, their blades have venom on them that takes effect within minutes, something I'm pretty sure your crewmembers are feeling at the moment. They also have a hardened exo-skeleton that is moderately resistant to bullets and highly resistant to heat. Meaning your lasers won't have an effect on it."

"And how do you know all this?" asked Meia incredulously.

"Personal experience" he replied with a shrug "Even better I know how to kill it."

"Would you?" asked the captain.

"Well seeing as how you're going to kill us anyways" said Hibiki "I just don't see the point."

The captain got what the boy was getting at "Very well if you can take care of this bug for us I'll spare your life, but that doesn't mean the other two are of much use." Bart paled while Duelo kept a neutral expression.

"Well this guy…" said Hibiki gesturing to Duelo "Is a doctor and probably knows how to counteract reaper venom." Duelo nodded. "And the other guy probably knows more about this ship than the two of us put together"

"Is that so." said the captain "I find it funny how you try to protect these two, right after you said you were in a war against each other."

"Eh, between the three of us we have two common problems on this ship." Said Hibiki gaining a dangerous grin "one is a reaper, I'll give three guesses on the what the other one is."

"Clever one aren't you?" said captain amused "Very well we have a deal if you can get rid of that monster we won't kill you or the other with you." The men were escorted out of the room and were led to the where the security team

"Are you sure you can do this?" whispered Bart "I mean it's a reaper!"

"I was near ground zero when these things got out I didn't get out of that place alive without figuring out how to kill these things." Said Hibiki confidently "You either use a lot of bullets explosives or stick a knife in their soft spot. Which I discovered at some cost." He rubbed his back from the memory. They arrived at the bulkhead a group of four girls had small single gashes their shoulders and limbs and seemed to be in incredible pain.

"What's wrong with them?" asked Meia as the wounds didn't seem to bad to her.

"It's probably the venom." said Hibiki "once it gets inside you it feels like your being burnt alive it also kills you combined with the blood lost, I noticed that these things don't attack those who've been cut and instead follow them until they die. It's probably one of the reasons I was able to leave that battlefield."

"Battlefield?" asked Meia confused at the wording.

"It's nothing." Replied Hibiki "Anyways the bigger the wound the greater the pain and the faster you die these four probably have a good twelve hours left, if the doctor wasn't here." After he finished Meia put Duelo to work on the girls. Hibiki was pushed closer to the door. "Do I at least get a weapon." He was handed the knife he used when he fought the women earlier and a flash light. "I'm getting the feeling you don't want me to survive."

"Whether you live or not is of no concern to me." Replied Meia in cold tone. "You asked for a weapon and I gave you one you are obviously familiar with." Hibik shrugged and turned towards the door.

'She totally wants me to die.' Thought Hibiki 'though she did give me one of the more effective weapons against these things. It's the principle of the thing.'

"Open it" said Hibiki preparing his knife. The door opened to reveal a dark corridor, a loud screeching was heard from darkness "Well someone's hungry" joked Hibiki with a small smirk, before turning serious. "Make sure you lock this door behind me, and probably get some heavy weaponry down here to."

"Obviously." Said Meia.

"Bart, this is the only entrance to his part of the ship right?" asked Hibiki.

"If I remember the plans correctly there should only be a couple of storage rooms and a dead end back there."

"Well likes one of us is coming out, if it ain't human shoot it." With that Hibiki walked in, it was dark just like the night he spent in the Gorge, the reaper attack didn't last one day it was a week of humans being hunted down and killed horribly, Hibiki often dreams of it, seeing his comrades cleaved in half, having their still beating hears eaten right out of their chest. These were the nightmares of Taraak, and Hibiki was in its element.

He could hear scurrying in the around him, the reaper was stalking him waiting for his chance to strike, he heard scurrying in to the left and looked his flashlight over quickly and saw an entrance to the cargo room, the door had been torn threw probably by the reaper. He entered, he knew he was being baited but he had a job to do. Hibiki is scared, normally your afraid of something because you don't understand it, Hibiki understood these things he knows how they hunt how, they feed. This is the reason why he's afraid he knows firsthand what they are capable of, it haunts him in his sleep, it haunts him in his memory…but he deals with it, he does not complain, he presses forward. It's what he's done it's what he'll continue to do. No matter what he'll continue for ward until his bones turn to dust. Even that may not be able to stop him.

That's when Hibiki heard a whimpering noise, that was weird because reapers don't whimper. "Hello… is anyone there?" that was a female voice, she sounded afraid, Hibiki made his way to its origin, he rounded a corner and found a women probably slightly older than him she had shoulder length black hair and was dressed in the attire he's seen most of the other females wear consisting of a white blouse with blue details on the shoulder and skin tight black pants. She had her legs pressed against her chest and leaning against the wall which was the very back corner of the room. "Who are…ah a man!" she yelped trying to push herself back into the corner out of fear.

Hibiki was confused now because she seemed unharmed, if reapers leave someone alive they're usually poisoned by the venom, or bleeding out, usually both. However none of those things were happening to her. This was odd, why would the reaper leave perfectly good prey just laying around unharmed, unless…She was bait!

Hibiki turned to see a reaper blade coming at him, and he didn't have time to block.

*CLANG*

* * *

**Outside the storage area**

Meia was watching the door expectantly, while Duelo tended to the injured crew members who were now unconscious as other females brought him medical supplies. Bart was escorted to his cell sometime ago "I have managed to counteract the venom" informed Duelo "these four should wake up in a few hours." Meia nodded at this.

"You make this 'reaper' out to be some sort of nightmare" said Meia. "I doubt it was as bad as you say, even if it was he must be an idiot to go up against it." Duelo looked at her. A tense silence grew between the two and Meia readied her gun in case he tries something

"When we first encountered the reapers it was during a large scale battle in a place known as the Gorge." Said Duelo "Both Imperial and Coalition forces combined up to around two million combatants, however the reapers came out and of the two million soldiers who had tanks and mechs only a total of five made it out, all of them were grievously wounded. On the imperial side we had three, however one succumbed to his wounds after he gave his report, another committed suicide at what he saw, the last one is currently missing a leg." Meia looked at him stunned "On the Coalition side only two made it out, one apparently died in the desert from the venom in his veins, while the other made it back to base, that person spent a week trying to escape from the reapers and didn't get out unscathed he was apparently dealing with a large dose of venom in the last hour of his journey. He spent a week being hunted by those things and saw his comrades killed in horrible ways before his very eyes, he was even poisoned once. That person is the one you sent in there. So if anyone could deal with it, it would be him."

Meia looked stunned at the story she was told, one million soldiers were killed against these things, there wasn't that big of death toll on Mejeere since the environmental system malfunction, and even that was only a few hundred thousand deaths it almost seemed like a robbery gone bad compared to that.

"If you still don't believe me I'm sure there is a propaganda video in the ships database and the Coalition was very boastful about having a survivor from that battle." Said Duelo, Meia looked at him skeptically.

"Just get back to work." Said Meia.

* * *

**Hibiki**

Hibiki managed to dodge the blade as it impaled itself in a container, however the thing wasted no time in scurrying a way giving out several shrieks, which the girl cowered from. Hibiki understood why she did that. It was the same sound that hunted him through the hot days and freezing nights in the Gorge. That nightmare was one thing he wished he didn't have to deal with again. And yet here he is.

"Damn, I forgot how clever these things could be!" said Hibiki in annoyance "Come on we need to move!"

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" protested the girl, Hibiki sighed.

"Listen the only reason you're still alive is because that thing was using you as bait." Said Hibiki constantly scanning the surrounding area. "The minute I leave, with this flash light, that thing will come back and kill you since you aren't of any use to it anymore." Hibiki saw a few things spill out onto the ground from the gash in the container, they were flares. This gave him an idea.

The girl reluctantly nodded and got up and followed Hibiki closely, who was keeping a careful eye out. All of sudden another screech form the reaper was heard and the girl wrapped her arms around Hibiki out of fear.

"What are you doing?" asked Hibiki in slight annoyance, he's never seen men act like this, usually when they hear an unidentifiable but hostile noise they just shoot in that general direction until they're satisfied. The girl seemed to see what she was doing and jumped back with small 'eep' and was red faced. Hibiki looked at her incredulously 'Girls are weird.' He thought. They continued on toward the corridor Hibiki used to come in the thing was obviously stalking them, telltale signs were the skittering they heard.

"What is that thing?" asked the girl gaining control of herself.

"It'd take too long to explain." Said Hibiki "For now I'll say it's a monster and wants to kill us...probably quite horribly."

"Aren't you scared?"

"Unbelievably" replied Hibiki without hesitation "But I can't let the fear get to me, or we will die." They continued on in silence

When they were about reach the exit when Hibiki's combat instincts kicked in, he pushed the girl out of the way as she gave yelp. However the reaper arm blade cut Hibiki across the chest. The sounds of the reaper retreating were heard. Hibiki fell to his knees clutching the large cut across his chest from his right shoulder down to his side, blood started to be visible on his tank top.

"Are you alright?" asked the girl concerned, whether it was genuine or he was her best chance out he did not know, nor did he care. Hibiki chuckled a bit.

"This doesn't hurt as bad as I remember." Hibiki grinned a little before wincing as the venom kicked in "Still hurts like hell though."

"How can you grin with that wound?" asked the girl worried.

"Just having a trip down memory lane, it isn't pleasant but I know how to finish it now."

"Really how?" she asked hopeful.

"It only has one target now, and that's you. so now we need to make it to corridor and if you stay behind me we'll be fine and I'll kill that thing."

"Why is it focused on me?" asked the girl now afraid for her life.

"Because, those blades that it cut me with has venom on them." Said Hibiki "judging from the wound, I have about an hour before I die, it knows it and is now going to focus on the person with the highest chance of survival. Time to put my plan into action."

"Why are you doing this?" asked girl solemnly, "Risking your life to save me, and to kill that thing."

"Well to be honest it wasn't out of the goodness out my heart" said Hibiki standing up "I cut a deal with your captain, I kill this thing then me and my fellow inmates live. That and one of them is doctor who's treating your friends right now. Honestly I expected you to be dead in some mangled fashion when I walked in. but since you're here I'm making sure we're getting out of this alive." The girl looked up to him with admiration and relief and followed him into the corridor.

When they go into the corridor they heard a screech form the other end of the corridor in the direction of exit. Hibiki threw a couple of the flares he had taken from the damaged container down the hall. The area was lit up with a red hue and at the other end they could just barely make out the monster that's been hunting them. Though it's details were obscured it was obviously larger then a human, its body had an onyx color to it. It a had four legs on the ground with its torso in upright position. It had arms resembling giant scythes. Hibiki also knew this thing was heavily armored, but he also knew where the weak spot was. The thing let out screech and charged. Hibiki charged as well.

They charged and met in the middle of the corridor, both had their respective blades coming in for a killing blow.

* * *

**Outside**

The injured crew members were moved to the medical ward and Duelo was escorted back to his cell. A new security team with laser rifles was waiting outside the door ready for anything that might come out of it. There was knock on the door, not a bashing sound as expected form an alien creature. It had a steady rhythm to. Meia not taking any chances had the security team ready their rifles and went to the door control, she pushed the open button. They were surprised when they found that it was the missing crewmember from the group she seemed unharmed.

"Mira! You're okay!" exclaimed a member of the security team before running up and pulling the girl into an affectionate hug.

"How did you survive?" asked another relived to see their crewmember and friend alright.

"He protected me." She explained pointing back into the dark corridor.

"He?" asked the group as whole, but then they heard footsteps and a dragging sound, the team aimed their rifles back down the hall. Out of the darkness walked Hibiki, he looked worse for wear having a large wound across his torso and another on his shoulder he got when he killed the monster. In his right hand was his foot long knife, in the other he was dragging the creature and dropped it when he came into the light.

"I've taken care of our little bug problem" he said with a proud grin on his face "Now will someone call the doctor I've got poison running through my body and it burns." he dropped his knife involuntarily "I also only have twenty minutes to live, so that'd be great." With that he fell to his knees, and into unconsciousness.

* * *

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